One supply job pays once. A route pays every week, and each additional shop on it costs less to serve than the last. That difference is what turns supply work into something that grows.
Start from the shops you already serve
A route is built out of merchants who already trust you. After a few clean deliveries, ask what they order regularly and how often. Most restocking is far more predictable than the merchant realises, and simply naming the pattern is often enough to formalise it.
Cluster by geography, then by day
Shops close together on the same day is the whole economics. Five stops in one area beats five stops across a city, even at the same price, because your real cost is time and transport rather than the delivery itself.
Fix the days. A merchant who knows you come on Tuesday will save their order for Tuesday, which is how a route becomes reliable in both directions.
Buy for the route, not the stop
Once several shops need the same goods, you are buying in volume. That can mean better prices, fewer trips and a stronger position with your own suppliers — and it is the point at which a route starts earning more than the sum of its jobs.
Know your cost per stop
Transport, time, and money tied up in goods before you are reimbursed. A route that looks busy can still lose money if a distant stop consumes an hour for a small order. Work it out per stop and be willing to drop the ones that do not pay.
Reliability is the product
A shop that has run out is losing sales, so what they are really buying is certainty. Same day, same time, right goods. One missed week undoes a great deal of goodwill.
Where it leads
A route teaches you what shops buy, on what cycle, and from whom. That is the knowledge a supply business is built on — and it is why this work rewards members who stay with it.
